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Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Retreat Gastropub

My foodie coworker kept asking me and asking me if I had been to Retreat yet, because it was that good. So I had an easy answer when it came time to pick out my birthday dinner with Beth.

Very close to the IKEA, I was impressed with the remodel of the building. I bet it makes for a nice "corner bar" for a lot of people with all the new lofts going up around there. The place is fairly small so it's good that we went on a weeknight early on to get a table. When we left a couple of hours later, the place was really hoppin'! And the bar was full the whole time...

Cocktails are where it's at here and since there were four of us, we managed to order all the house cocktails in two rounds. I highly recommend this strategy!

Cocktail Menu

The first round...

This one was mine... a Hemingway Lookalike.

Hemingway Lookalike

Patience ordered the Fort Collins.

Fort Collins

Beth's Canaan's Law...

Canaan's Law

And Matt's Oaxaca Flocka Flame, which is just fun to say, was bright orange and looked like it was on fire!

Oaxaca Flocka Flame

As with most places we go to these days, we get stuck in the land of "small plates". We must try them all and rarely make it to entrees.

I knew immediately that I wanted Poutine and Mac N Cheese, since those are my favorite foods hands down.

This is not your usual poutine... while they used fingerling potatoes, there were cubes of cheese that were tastier once they melted in with the mushroom gravy.

Poutine

The Mac N Cheese was probably the tops of the night with the three cheese blend.

Mac N Cheese

I was overruled with this order of Brussels Sprouts. (Who's birthday was it anyway? Sheesh.)

Brussels Sprouts

Oh... and we all started with Potato & Leek Soup, which really hit the spot on a frigid, winter night.

Potato & Leek Soup

Matt did venture over to the other side of the menu for a Flatbread pizza that was also easily shareable.

Flatbread Pizza

After all that food...it meant round two of cocktails! This is where things are a bit fuzzy to me...

I believe I ordered the Timber so we could finish off the list.

Timber

I think this is Beth's Bon Vivant...again, fun to say over and over.

Bon Vivant

This Agave Cooler looked really refreshing.

Agave Cooler

Which leaves the Dunmore Pineapple, bright and yellow, appearing very sweet.

Dunmore Pineapple

Done yet? Of course not! Gotta have birthday dessert! The birthday dessert is the bread pudding and we all shared it since everyone was so stuffed.

Bread pudding

Although Matt did manage to squeeze in a night cap...

I really hope we can go back and "eat and drink all of the things" as Patience would say. So much to choose from! Definitely study up before you go.